Teary farewells as Obama aides pack up, make way for Trump

WASHINGTON — They line up near the Oval Office, down the hallway toward the Cabinet Room, with their spouses and young kids in tow. When it’s their turn, the White House staffers enter for a few private moments with President Barack Obama, a photo and a farewell hug from the boss.

There’s a mass exodus underway this week at the White House, as Obama and his staff pack up their offices and turn in their BlackBerrys. For some who joined Obama’s team right out of college, it’s the end of the only professional experience they’ve ever known.

The finals days of any president’s administration are always bittersweet and heavy on nostalgia, as officials face the transition back to being “civilians” who will no longer have their hands on the nation’s levers of power. There is added sadness for Obama staffers who, by and large, are horrified by the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.

“You’re always aware that it’s a special privilege to work there and not something to take for granted,” said Nate Lowentheil, who worked on Obama’s National Economic Council for the last three years. “It’s particularly hard knowing the next wave of people coming are going to be working to reverse the things you were working to advance until your very last hour.”


As White House press secretary Josh Earnest emerged in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room on Tuesday to give his final press briefing — his 354th as press secretary, Earnest said — there were tears on the faces of some of his deputies. In the back of the room, current and former Obama staffers gathered to witness his last round of jousting with reporters.

“I’m going to miss it,” Earnest said. “It will take some getting used to seeing somebody else standing up here doing it.”

“Or not,” he added, in a nod to the prospect that Trump’s team may make changes to the daily briefing.

In between closing out final projects and typing up reports on the work they’ve done, White House staffers are packing away their knickknacks, coffeemakers and photos. The boxes stack up in offices already vacated by staffers who have departed over the past few weeks.

By Thursday night, all must be gone to make way for Trump’s team.

Before they leave the building for the final time, they’ll go through a checklist that completes their formal separation from the White House: cell phones handed in, computers locked and papers properly filed to be archived. The last step, aides said, is the hardest: handing in the badge that provides access to the complex day or night.

Then they depart the building and make what for many is a jarring transition from 18-hour workdays and little personal time to unemployment. Lowentheil said that since his last day less than two weeks ago, he’d read three novels, slept 10-12 hours a night and, for the first time in years, didn’t set a morning alarm.

Emails announcing a staffer’s last day stream in at a faster and faster pace as Jan. 20 approaches. They share with colleagues a personal email address and cell phone number, a thank you and maybe a brief reflection on their time at the center of it all.

“It’s been an honor to be a part of it. And yeah, I’m interested in what happens here. And I’ll continue to follow it,” Earnest said. “But I will be relieved to not have the burden to follow it as closely as this job has required over the last two-and-a-half years.”

A few White House staffers have found new jobs already, but most are taking some time off.

Some are going home to visit family they haven’t spent much time with in years. One said he was spending two months driving across the country, unsure of what he’d do next. Others are taking long vacations to places like New Zealand and Iceland, unencumbered by the need to constantly check in with the office.

“This is the only world I’ve known,” said Clay Dumas, who took time off from college to work for Obama’s 2008 campaign, then interned at the White House before being hired four years ago. He said he was searching for a job that would allow him to continue advancing values and policies he worked on in the White House. “Whatever I do next will be a huge continuation of that.”

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Donald Trump elected US president

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump has been elected president of the United States.

The Republican nominee won Wednesday after capturing Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes, putting him over the 270 threshold.

Voters eager to shake up the nation’s political establishment picked the celebrity businessman to become the nation’s 45th president.

Trump rode an astonishing wave of support from voters seeking change and willing to accept a candidate loose with facts and accused of sexual misconduct.

He upset Democrat Hillary Clinton, who would have become the first woman to serve in the Oval Office.

Trump struck a populist tone and placed a hardline immigration stance at his campaign’s heart.

Trump rose to political fame after questioning whether President Barack Obama was born in the United States. He will now follow Obama into the White House.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

A Miss Universe insulted by Trump steps up for Clinton

WASHINGTON— Alicia Machado says that when she gained weight after being crowned Miss Universe for 1996, Donald Trump labeled her with a sexist nickname — “Miss Piggy” — that caused her shame and humiliation.

Two decades later, Machado’s dealings with Trump, her one-time beauty pageant boss, are reverberating through the 2016 campaign as the Republican businessman and reality TV star seeks the White House.

Democratic rival Hillary Clinton told Machado’s story toward the end of Monday’s first presidential debate, scolding Trump for referring to the Venezuelan-born actress as “Miss Housekeeping,” as Clinton said, “because she was Latina.”

“Donald, she has a name,” Clinton said, prompting Trump to ask, “Where did you find this?”

Clinton said, “Her name is Alicia Machado and she has become a U.S. citizen, and you can bet she’s going to vote this November.”

Asked about the exchange during an interview Tuesday with “Fox and Friends,” Trump said Machado was “the worst we ever had,” adding: “She gained a massive amount of weight. It was a real problem. We had a real problem.”

On CNN Tuesday night, Machado said she thinks Trump believes women are “a second class of people.”



“I love this country,” Machado said. “I don’t want to have some misogynist president.”

Clinton’s embrace of Machado brought comparisons to her campaign’s defense of Khizr Khan, whose son was killed while protecting other U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Khan spoke at the Democratic National Convention, holding up a copy of the U.S. Constitution while accusing Trump of smearing the character of Muslims.

Clinton’s campaign is trying to mobilize Latinos and women in November’s election and has assailed Trump for derogatory comments about women in the past. It quickly released a web video detailing Machado’s story, portraying her as a mortified pageant winner whom Trump called “fat” or “ugly” and blindsided by inviting reporters to watch her work out.

Machado went on a diet in 1997 after saying she gained at least 15 pounds. Trump said during Machado’s workout in front of the media that year that “she likes to eat — like all of us” and supported her weight-loss efforts.

She was embroiled in controversy of a different sort one year later, after a judge in Venezuela accused her of threatening to kill him after he indicted her then-boyfriend for attempted murder. The boyfriend, Juan Rafael Rodriguez Regetti, was accused of shooting and wounding his sister’s husband, whom he blamed for his sister’s suicide. The victim’s family accused Machado of driving her boyfriend’s getaway car, but she denied any involvement and apparently was never indicted, due to lack of evidence.

Now a U.S. citizen, Machado told reporters Tuesday in a conference call arranged by the Clinton campaign that her experience with Trump could “open eyes” in the presidential election. She said she was “really surprised” to hear Clinton refer to her story during the debate — she said she was overcome with emotion and started crying — but wanted to help Clinton in the election.

After the debate, Machado tweeted her thanks to Clinton, writing in Spanish: “Thanks Mrs. Hillary Clinton. Your respect for women and our differences makes you great. I’m with you.”

In June, Machado appeared at a news conference in Virginia held by immigrant advocacy groups to encourage Latino voters to support Clinton.

“I want to keep working on my campaigns for women’s equality, for respect for women and that our physical appearances do not define us productive or intelligent beings,” Machado told reporters in Spanish. “We are more than what we look like physically, that’s my point.”

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net

Last of the 49 bodies removed from Orlando nightclub

ORLANDO, Florida — The last of the bodies were removed from an Orlando gay nightclub overnight as investigators dug into the background of the gunman, who called 911 to profess allegiance to the Islamic State during the attack that left 49 victims dead.

At the White House, President Barack Obama said Monday there is no clear evidence so far that gunman Omar Mateen was directed by the extremist group. He said Mateen was inspired by radical information over the internet, calling it another apparent example of “homegrown extremism.”

Wielding an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and a handgun, Mateen opened fire at the crowded Pulse Orlando club early Sunday in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history. He was killed in a gun battle with a SWAT team after police used explosives and a small armored vehicle to punch a hole in a wall and allow dozens of club-goers to escape, police said.

The tragedy shocked the nation and cast a pall over Orlando, known the world over as the home of Walt Disney World and other theme parks.

“We will not be defined by the act of a cowardly hater,” Mayor Buddy Dyer vowed.

Mateen was a 29-year-old American-born Muslim who worked as a security guard in Florida. FBI officials said they had investigated him in 2013 and 2014 on suspicion of terrorist sympathies but could not make a case against him.

Counterterrorism experts have been warning in the past few years about the danger of so-called lone wolf attackers who act in sympathy with extremist groups like the Islamic State but are not directed by them.

Despite the 911 call from the club, the picture became murkier when Mateen’s Afghan immigrant father suggested another motive: anti-gay hatred. The father said his son got angry a few months ago when he saw two men kissing in Miami.

Also, Mateen’s ex-wife attributed the violence to mental illness, saying he was bipolar and abusive toward her.

Obama said investigators are still looking into killer’s motivations and considering all possibilities, noting that like the Islamic State have been known to target gays.

The Islamic State’s radio called Mateen “one of the soldiers of the caliphate in America.” Al-Bayan Radio, a media outlet for the extremist group, hailed the attack, saying that it targeted a gathering of Christians and gays and that it was the worst attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.

The statement gave no indication of whether the group planned or knew of the attack beforehand.

Mateen’s father, Seddique Mir Mateen, told reporters Monday that the massacre was “the act of a terrorist,” and added: “I apologize for what my son did. I am as sad and mad as you guys are.”

He wouldn’t go into details about any religious or political views his son held, saying he didn’t know. Asked whether he missed his son, he said: “I don’t miss anything about him. What he did was against humanity.”

Thirty-nine of the dead were killed at the club, and the others died at hospitals, the mayor said. By Monday morning, families of 24 of the victims had been notified, Dyer said.

Workers removed the bodies four at a time on stretchers and loaded them into white vans. The action was repeated over and over. The covered bodies were taken to the county medical examiner’s office. All were there by 11 p.m., Dyer said.

At least 53 people were hospitalized, including five in grave condition, meaning the death toll could rise.

On Monday morning, officials emphasized that there was no immediate threat to the public.

The shooting started about 2 a.m., with more than 300 people inside the Pulse, where it was Latin night.

“He had an automatic rifle, so nobody stood a chance,” said Jackie Smith, who saw two friends next to her get shot. “I just tried to get out of there.”

Jon Alamo had been dancing for hours when he wandered into the club’s main room just in time to see the gunman. “You ever seen how Marine guys hold big weapons, shooting from left to right? That’s how he was shooting at people,” he said.

“My first thought was, ‘Oh, my God, I’m going to die,'” Alamo said. “I was praying to God that I would live to see another day.”

Pulse patron Eddie Justice texted his mother, Mina: “Mommy I love you. In club they shooting.” About 30 minutes later, hiding in a bathroom, he texted her: “He’s coming. I’m gonna die.”

Justice’s name would eventually be added to the list of the dead.

On the same day as the Orlando attack, an Indiana man armed with three assault rifles and chemicals used to make explosives was arrested in Southern California and told police he was headed to a West Hollywood gay pride parade, authorities said.

The previous deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history was the 2007 attack at Virginia Tech, where a student killed 32 people and took his own life.

Mateen was not unknown to law enforcement: In 2013, he made inflammatory comments to co-workers and was interviewed twice, according to FBI agent Ronald Hopper, who called the interviews inconclusive. In 2014, Hopper said, officials found that Mateen had ties to an American suicide bomber, but the agent described the contact as minimal, saying it did not constitute a threat at the time.

Mateen bought at least two guns legally within the last week or so, according to Trevor Velinor of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Mateen exchanged gunfire with 14 police officers at the club and took hostages at one point. In addition to the assault rifle and handgun, he had a weapon in his vehicle, police said.

Police Chief John Mina said officers held back for some time because Mateen indicated he had a bomb vest. About 5 a.m., authorities sent in a SWAT team to rescue the remaining club-goers, Mina said.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Sanders wins Wyoming to extend victory run

NEW YORK, United States — White House hopeful Bernie Sanders extended his winning streak in his bid to pull off a shock and defeat Hillary Clinton, grabbing victory in the Wyoming Democratic caucuses Saturday, US media said.

The state — which is overwhelmingly Republican — awards only 14 delegates, meaning Sanders barely puts a dent in Clinton’s more than 200-delegate lead, but it gives the self-described democratic socialist another morale boost, ahead of the crucial New York primary on April 19.

The Vermont senator won 56 percent of the Wyoming vote to 44 percent for Clinton, CNN projected, with most ballots counted.

Clinton though remains the clear frontrunner for the Democratic party ticket for November’s general election, but Sanders has the momentum and has enjoyed a string of successes at the polls.

Speaking to supporters in New York, Sanders broke into his speech to say to cheers: “All right. News bulletin. We just won Wyoming.”

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Clinton walks tightrope to woo women voters

WASHINGTON—Hillary Clinton says her life’s work has been a battle to help women make their own choices, but the first rounds of the Democratic nomination race raised big doubts over whether America’s women will choose her as the country’s first female commander-in-chief.

The former secretary of state is on the offensive after suffering a blowout defeat to Bernie Sanders in the New Hampshire primary, where she lost out heavily to younger women despite promises to be their champion in the White House.

Two prominent Clinton supporters complicated her efforts to woo female voters last weekend with statements that triggered an embarrassing backlash by suggesting women were duty-bound to back the former first lady.

On the debate stage in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Thursday night, the 68-year-old reached out over and over to the female electorate — talking up her feminist credentials, but also insisting she does not take their support for granted.

“I have said many times I am not asking people to support me because I’m a woman,” she said.

“I am asking people to support me because I think I am the most qualified, experienced and ready person to be the president and the commander-in-chief.”

Exit polls in New Hampshire showed Clinton — the only woman still vying for the White House — receiving 44 percent of the female vote, compared to 55 percent for Sanders.

More troublingly, young women seem to be flocking to her rival: the 74-year-old senator from Vermont won 82 percent of the vote among women younger than 30, and 69 percent of votes from women under 45 in the state.

‘Empowered to choose’



New Hampshire was undeniably a blow for Clinton, who won the state in 2008 thanks to the women’s vote, but she brushed off the setback on Thursday night.

“I have spent my entire adult life working toward making sure that women are empowered to make their own choices, even if that choice is not to vote for me,” Clinton said.

Despite the drubbing, nationwide poll data suggests Clinton can still hope for solid support from the female constituency as the primary race intensifies, heading next to Nevada and South Carolina.

“I think she’s still in a position to get plenty of support from women in this contest, especially relative to men,” said Geoffrey Skelley of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

Even in New Hampshire itself, she still fared considerably better among women than men — losing them by 11 percentage points, whereas she lost the male vote by a full 35 points.

And at the national level, 48 percent of women say they would vote for Clinton and 38 percent for Sanders, according to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted from February 2 to 4. Twelve percent remain undecided.

But Clinton was put on the spot by the controversy unleashed by two high-profile backers, the feminist icon Gloria Steinem and another former secretary of state, Madeleine Albright.

With friends like these



Steinem apologized after suggesting young women aren’t serious with their politics and were simply enticed to the Sanders camp because “the boys are with Bernie.”

And Albright was forced to explain her remark that “there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other,” although she has said the phrase repeatedly over the years — so much so that it was printed on cups at Starbucks.

Her statement prompted New York Times columnist Frank Bruni, who is gay, to ask whether there would be a “place in hell” for him if he does not support a gay candidate.

“There’s a weird strain of thought swirling around Clinton’s campaign: that we should vote for her because she’s a woman. Or that she’s inoculated from certain flaws or accusations by dint of gender,” Bruni wrote.

“Voters don’t like being viewed as simpletons who will support someone just because that candidate is the same gender or race,” warned the University of Virginia’s Skelley.

Clinton was gently dismissive of Albright’s comments at Thursday’s debate, sticking to her credo that women are free to back her or not.

“I think she’s been saying that for as long as I’ve known her, which is about 25 years,” Clinton said.

But she also insisted the feminist struggle was far from over, whether on pay, family leave, or equal career opportunities.

“We need a leader on women’s issues,” Clinton said, “to protect the hard-fought gains that women have made that, make no mistake about it, are under tremendous attack.”

The key question is, will her message resonate with the younger generation?

For women born in the 1980s or 1990s, “to have a woman at the White House doesn’t seem as historical for them,” said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Champion Warriors visit Obama in White House

President Barack Obama welcomed the reigning NBA champion Golden State Warriors to the White House on Thursday, joking with superstar Stephen Curry and his league-leading teammates.

Obama is a big basketball fan and played golf with Curry and his father, former NBA standout Dell Curry, last August while on vacation.

“Steph was using the excuse of Secret Service being intimidating for why he lost the match. That is not the case,” Obama said. “But he will have another opportunity.”

Obama said he was disappointed not to see Riley Curry, the young daughter of the reigning NBA Most Valuable Player who charmed the cameras during her father’s post-game news conferences during last June’s NBA Finals.

“I was hoping that Riley Curry would be here today to share the podium with me, but I guess I’m going to have to get media training some other day,” Obama said with a smile.

Obama acknowledged Warriors coach Steve Kerr, whose five NBA titles as a player included three from 1996 to 1998 as a guard alongside Michael Jordan for the Chicago Bulls, Obama’s team.

“It’s rare to be in the presence of guys from the greatest team in NBA history, so we’re pretty lucky today because we’ve got one of those players in the house,” Obama said.

Kerr was on the Bulls’ 1995-96 squad that went an NBA-record 72-10 and the following season’s team that went a second-best 69-13. Now the Warriors team he coaches is a threat to both marks.

Kerr, who guided Golden State to a crown in his first season on the sidelines but missed the start of the current campaign due to back surgery, returned only two weeks ago, after the Warriors had opened 39-4, the second-best start in NBA history, under fill-in Luke Walton.

“Unfortunately, the NBA won’t let Luke count those wins as his own. Which, man, that doesn’t seem fair,” Obama said.

“You defied the cynics, you accomplished big things, you racked up a great record, and you don’t get enough credit,” Obama added, then pausing for a beat as the similarity to his political situation hung in the air.

“I can’t imagine how that feels,” he deadpanned, to laughs from the crowd.

source: sports.inquirer.net

Feted in China, Xi’s US profile dims in shadow of Pope Francis

BEIJING/WASHINGTON - On Friday morning, Chinese President Xi Jinping enjoyed the symbolic high point of his first state visit to the United States—a 21-gun salute as he stood with President Barack Obama outside the White House.

For most Americans, it was a sideshow: the main news networks were deep into their fourth straight day of blanket coverage of Pope Francis' historic US visit.

Xi's US trip has—at least in terms of US media coverage—been firmly overshadowed by the wildly popular pontiff, raising questions over its timing and contrasting sharply with the wall-to-wall coverage of Xi by Chinese media.

China's tightly controlled state media has focused heavily on the pomp, ceremony and shows of respect Xi has been treated to in Seattle and then Washington.

The adoring domestic coverage is important for Xi, who is grappling with Chinese market instability and a flagging economy at a time when he is seeking to consolidate his grip on the leadership ahead of a crucial Communist Party congress in 2017.

On a visit to a high school in Tacoma, near Seattle, where Xi and his singer wife Peng Liyuan were serenaded by the school choir, state television showed children screaming their appreciation. A day earlier, Xi had quoted Martin Luther King and sprinkled references to US pop culture into his speech to tech executives.

China has also stressed Xi's personal connection to the United States, with the Xinhua news agency carrying a video on its Facebook page—not mentioning that Facebook is blocked in China—showing him putting on a friendly face for Americans.

"From Iowa visitor to White House guest," the English-language video explains, referring to a brief 1985 visit when Xi was an animal-feed official in Hebei, Iowa's sister province.

The pope's visit to the United States, by contrast, has barely featured in the Chinese media. The Vatican has had no formal diplomatic ties to Beijing since shortly after the Communist Party took power in 1949.

Francis, the most socially progressive pope in generations, has drawn large crowds and the kind of welcome normally reserved for rock stars during his first US visit, which ends in Philadelphia on Sunday. US live news networks have hung on his every word and step.

One-sided media battle

Talk of the pope dwarfed any attention given Xi's visit, according to data provided by MediaMiser, which tracks news and media content online, on television and radio.

From Aug. 26 to Sept. 25, tweets in the United States about Francis topped 765,000, compared to 107,000 for Xi, according to MediaMiser. Online articles from Sept. 20-24 mentioned the pope nearly four times more than Xi. On television, the pope was mentioned over 25 times more.

Francis flew out of Washington, heading to a rapturous reception in New York and a star turn at the United Nations General Assembly, just as Xi was arriving.

Under Xi, US-Chinese relations are at a low, hurt by tensions over cyber theft and China's assertive moves in Asian maritime disputes.

"To be contrasted with someone who has no military, no economic might and be completely eclipsed, I think it's astounding. I don't think the Chinese are noticing the contrast in messages," said Jorge Guajardo, the former Mexican ambassador to China from 2007 to 2013 who lives in Washington.

Chinese officials played down any suggestion that the pope's visit had eclipsed Xi.

"The pope's visit, we noticed that and that ... he is welcomed by the public. His visit has his own bearing here. President Xi's visit has its own bearing," said Chinese delegation spokesman Lu Kang.

Xi slid further down the US news agenda on Friday morning, when Republican House of Representative Speaker John Boehner announced his resignation. The big networks quickly cut off Xi speaking at a news conference with Obama to follow a briefing by Boehner.

Chinese officials have kept security around Xi's visit particularly tight, limiting his ability to go off script and interact with the public. He left his wife Peng to fill that role in Washington, where she accompanied First Lady Michelle Obama to name a new-born panda at the Smithsonian National Zoo.

Officials in Tacoma said the security preparations had been gruelling.

"We met with advance teams six or eight times over the summer," Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland said of Xi's visit to the high school.

Ming Xia, a political science professor at New York's City University who travelled to take part in an anti-Xi protest outside the White House, said the pope's humility during his visit had highlighted what he called Xi's arrogance.

"The pope was praying with the homeless and said we are all equal in the eyes of God, the real father. Xi thinks he's the father of the Chinese people—he has assumed the power of God." — Reuters

US Vice President Biden’s son Beau dies of brain cancer

WASHINGTON - Former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, son of US Vice President Joe Biden, died on Saturday after battling brain cancer, the vice president said. He was 46.

"The entire Biden family is saddened beyond words," Vice President Biden said in a statement released by the White House.

"We know that Beau's spirit will live on in all of us, especially through his brave wife, Hallie, and two remarkable children, Natalie and Hunter," he said.

Beau Biden had announced last year he planned to run for governor of Delaware in 2016.

He was diagnosed with brain cancer in August 2013 and underwent surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. After getting a "a clean bill of health" in November of that year, his cancer recurred in the spring of 2015, the vice president's office said.

He sought aggressive treatment and had been hospitalized this month at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center outside Washington. His family was with him when he died.

"Beau embodied my father's saying that a parent knows success when his child turns out better than he did," the vice president said. "In the words of the Biden family: Beau Biden was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known."

Beau Biden was very close to his father and a familiar presence in his political campaigns.

After eight years as attorney general in Delaware, Beau Biden joined the investor law firm Grant & Eisenhofer in 2015.

He served a year-long tour in Iraq as a member of the Delaware Army National Guard and underwent surgery at a cancer center in Texas last year. He suffered a mild stroke in 2010.

President Barack Obama paid warm tribute to Beau Biden, saying he took after his father.

"He studied the law, like his dad, even choosing the same law school. He chased a life of public service, like his dad, serving in Iraq and as Delaware's Attorney General," Obama said in a statement.

"Like his dad, Beau was a good, big-hearted, devoutly Catholic and deeply faithful man, who made a difference in the lives of all he touched, and he lives on in their hearts."

The vice president has faced family tragedy before.

Shortly after winning election to the US Senate in 1972, his wife Neilia and three children were in a car crash. Neilia and their daughter were killed, while their two sons, Beau and Hunter, were injured.

Biden opted not to move to Washington, choosing instead to make the 2 1/2-hour daily round-trip train commute from Delaware to his Senate job so he could spend more time with his sons. He married Jill Jacobs some five years after his first wife died.

Biden took office as vice president when Obama entered the White House in January 2009. He has a deep knowledge of Washington politics after decades in Congress and a folksy, avuncular style that contrasts with what many consider Obama's more aloof manner.

Biden has not publicly ruled out a run for president in 2016, but he would face tough odds to gain an advantage over his friend, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is far ahead in public opinion polls in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. — Reuters

Obama briefed on missing AirAsia flight 8501

HONOLULU - US President Barack Obama was briefed on the disappearance of AirAsia flight 8501 on Saturday, said White House spokesman Eric Schultz.

The flight lost contact with air traffic control in Indonesia.

Obama was briefed on the situation while on vacation with his family in Hawaii. — Reuters

On Fourth of July holiday, Obama urges immigration overhaul

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama told Americans on the Independence Day holiday on Friday that welcoming immigrants to the United States is "central to our way of life" as he made an impassioned argument for a new immigration policy.

"We have to fix our immigration system, which is broken, and pass common-sense immigration reform," Obama said at a White House ceremony for 25 foreign-born men and women who gained American citizenship for their service in the US military.

Obama is struggling on two fronts in the immigration debate.

His drive for Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration overhaul this year collapsed when House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Washington, told him the House would not hold a vote.

Along the southern US border in Texas, Obama's administration is attempting to get a handle on the tens of thousands of children from Central America who have flooded into the country, straining resources and leading to Republican criticism that Obama is not doing enough to stop the surge.

The twin challenges have put Obama in a difficult position. While he has vowed to take executive actions on his own to make it easier for undocumented people to remain in the United States, he says most of the recent migrants will be sent home.

This has upset immigration advocacy groups who support him and see the new migrants as victims of gang violence in their home countries.

Obama's remarks in the White House East Room underscored his message that the United States would be a weaker nation without immigrants.

"The basic idea of welcoming immigrants to our shores is central to our way of life," Obama said. "It's in our DNA. ... We shouldn't be making it harder for the best and brightest to come here."

Obama is scheduled to visit Texas next week to participate in events to raise money for Democratic candidates in the November congressional elections. But he will resist Republican pressure to visit the border, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Friday.

At the White House ceremony, 25 people were sworn in as citizens. They came from 15 countries ranging from Australia to Guatemala to the Philippines to Ukraine. —Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

White House steps up damage control on healthcare rollout

WASHINGTON - The White House sought to limit the political damage from the troubled rollout of the government's healthcare website as Republicans increased pressure on Wednesday to delay parts of President Barack Obama's signature domestic policy.

Obama administration officials held a closed-door briefing for Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives and planned a session with insurance company executives to explain steps they are taking to quickly resolve problems with Healthcare.gov.

Republican critics in Congress demanded a delay in a requirement of the healthcare law that uninsured Americans must purchase insurance or face a tax penalty. They also said they would intensify their investigations into the launch of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, known as "Obamacare."

"It is our job to hold them accountable, and when it comes to Obamacare clearly there is a lot to hold accountable," House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner told reporters.

The chair of the Democratic National Committee, Florida Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, told MSNBC that the administration should be willing to extend the open-enrollment period for people to sign up for insurance.

Online exchanges, or marketplaces, were designed to be the main way for millions of uninsured Americans to find out prices and buy health insurance plans required under the law, but the Oct. 1 debut has been marred by technical glitches that have kept many from signing on and making purchases. Those unable to sign up online can call a toll-free telephone number as an alternative.

The administration has so far declined to disclose the number of enrollments either online or by telephone.

A prolonged delay in getting Healthcare.gov to work could jeopardize White House efforts to sign up as many as 7 million people in 2014, the first full year the law takes effect. The administration on Tuesday began what it has called a "tech surge," bringing in experts led by the administration's top economic aide Jeffrey Zients to analyze and fix the problems.

"I think what we learned is they're working hard to fix the problems," Representative Sander Levin of Michigan, senior Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, said after Wednesday's briefing.

House Democrats said there was no talk in Wednesday's briefing about whether the problems should lead to a delay of the individual requirement that every American have insurance or pay a tax penalty. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated a delay would reduce enrollment significantly.

REPUBLICANS DEMAND DELAY

Republicans, who oppose the healthcare law on the grounds that it is an unwarranted extension of the federal government, said the requirement should be delayed until the problems with the rollout are resolved.

"With so many unanswered questions and the problems arising around this rollout, it doesn't make any sense to impose this one percent mandate tax on the American people," House Republican Leader Eric Cantor told reporters on Wednesday.

Republicans, who have repeatedly tried to derail or delay the healthcare law since taking control of the House in the 2010 elections, also demanded more answers about the scope of the problems and how many people were signing up for insurance in the federal exchanges.

Despite the announcement of the "tech surge," the administration has not provided details about what caused the problems, what is being done to fix them and who exactly is being brought in for the effort aside from Zients.

"This is not transparency, this is adding to the confusion and the fears surrounding the rollout of Obamacare," Cantor said.

Three committees in the Republican-controlled House have announced investigations of the law's rollout, which Cantor described as "nothing short of a debacle."

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has been the focal point of criticism for the problems and Republicans have demanded she step down, but so far the White House has rallied around her.

Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff, told the New York Times on Tuesday that Sebelius "has the president's confidence. And she knows that."

In that same article, however, an unidentified White House aide was quoted as saying that Sebelius did not have the "access to the president that she really needs to make a difference" and that while "everybody thinks that she's the driving force" in implementing Obamacare, "unfortunately she's not."

Sebelius, who will testify to Congress next week, will attend the session with insurance company executives, including the chief executives of WellPoint Inc and Humana Inc

WellPoint raised its 2013 membership and profit forecasts in part to reflect coming market changes under the law, its chief executive, Joseph Swedish, said in a statement on Wednesday.

Republican Representative Tim Murphy, chairman of a House and Energy Committee panel that will hold a hearing on the problems on Thursday, said the government had "frittered away" more than $300 million in payments to contractors for a website that does not work.

"Either they didn't know what was going on in their own offices, or they were deliberately misleading us and the American people," Murphy said.  — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

White House rejects latest Republican offer to end shutdown

WASHINGTON - The White House rejected a Republican plan to reopen portions of the US government on Tuesday as the first shutdown in 17 years closed landmarks like the Statue of Liberty and threw hundreds of thousands of federal employees out of work.

The back and forth offered no sign that President Barack Obama and Republicans can soon end a standoff over health care that has sidelined everything from trade negotiations to medical research and raised new concerns about Congress's ability to perform its most basic duties.

The Republican plan would restore funding for national parks, veterans services, and the District of Columbia. Other government services would remain unfunded.

While the selective funding approach appeared to unite conservative and moderate Republicans for now, the White House said Obama would veto it. Democrats who control the Senate said they would reject it before it reached Obama's desk.

Republicans who control the House of Representatives said Obama could not complain about the impact of the shutdown while refusing to negotiate. "The White House position is unsustainably hypocritical," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner.

An even bigger battle looms in coming weeks, when Congress must raise the debt limit or risk a US default that could roil global markets.

"This is a mess. A royal screwup," said Democratic Representative Louise Slaughter of New York.

Obama accused Republicans of taking the government hostage in order to sabotage his signature health care law, the most ambitious US social program in five decades.

"They've shut down the government over an ideological crusade to deny affordable health insurance to millions of Americans," Obama said in the White House Rose Garden.

Republicans in the House view the Affordable Care Act as a dangerous extension of government power and have coupled their efforts to undermine it with continued government funding. The Democratic-controlled Senate has repeatedly rejected those efforts.

Spending authority for much of the government expired at midnight on Monday (0400 GMT), but that did not prevent the Obama administration from opening on Tuesday the health-insurance exchanges that form the centerpiece of the law.

Veterans pass barricades

Republicans said their latest proposal would help elderly veterans who earlier in the day pushed past barricades at the National World War II Memorial to get into the shuttered site.

"They're coming here because they want to visit their memorial, the World War II memorial. But no, the Obama administration has put barricades around it," said Republican Representative Mike Simpson ofIdaho.

Democrats said Republicans were resorting to gimmicks to avoid a vote that would restore funding to the entire government because they were afraid it would pass.

"That's important--a park? How about the kids who need daycare?" said Democratic Representative Sander Levin of Michigan. "You have to let all the hostages go. Every single one of them."

The veterans in question had gotten in to the memorial with help from several Republican lawmakers. But they didn't seem particularly interested in taking sides.

"It's just like a bunch of little kids fighting over candy," said George, Atkinson, an 82-year-old Coast Guard veteran of the Korean War. "The whole group ought to be replaced, top man down."

The plan appeared to temporarily unite Republicans, heading off a split between Tea Party conservatives who pushed for the government funding confrontation and moderates who appear to be losing stomach for the fight.

Before a meeting of House Republicans, Representative Peter King, a New York moderate, estimated that more than 100 of the chamber's 232 Republicans would back Obama's demand to restore all government funding without conditions. That would be enough to easily pass the House with the support of the chamber's 200 Democrats.

The shutdown closed landmarks like the Grand Canyon and pared the government's spy agencies by 70 percent. In Washington, the National Zoo shut off a popular "panda cam" that allowed visitors to view its newborn panda cub online. In Pennsylvania, white supremacists had to cancel a planned rally at Gettysburg National Military Park.

Market reaction

Whether the shutdown represents another bump in the road for a Congress increasingly plagued by dysfunction or is a sign of a more alarming breakdown in the political process could be determined by the reaction among voters and on Wall Street.

Stock investors appeared to be taking the news in stride with investors confident a deal could be reached quickly. The S&P 500 closed up 0.8 percent and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.2 percent.

But the US Treasury was forced to pay the highest interest rate in about 10 months on its short-term debt as many investors avoided bonds that would be due later this month, when the government is due to exhaust its borrowing capacity.

If Congress can agree to a new funding bill soon, the shutdown would have little impact on the world's largest economy.

A week-long shutdown would slow US economic growth by about 0.3 percentage points, according to Goldman Sachs, but a longer disruption could weigh on the economy more heavily as furloughed workers scale back personal spending.

The last shutdown in 1995 and 1996 cost taxpayers $1.4 billion, according to congressional researchers.

The political crisis raised fresh concern about whether Congress can meet a crucial mid-October deadline to raise the government's $16.7 trillion debt ceiling. Some Republicans see that vote as another opportunity to undercut Obama's healthcare law.

Failure to raise the debt limit would force the country to default on its obligations, dealing a blow to the economy and sending shockwaves around global markets.

A 2011 standoff over the debt ceiling hammered consumer confidence and prompted a first-ever downgrade of the United States' credit rating.

Analysts say this time it could be worse. Lawmakers back then were fighting over how best to reduce trillion-dollar budget deficits, but this time they are at loggerheads over an issue that does not lend itself to compromise as easily: an expansion of government-supported health benefits to millions of uninsured Americans.

Republicans have voted more than 40 times to repeal or delay "Obamacare," but they failed to block the launch of its online insurance marketplaces on Tuesday. The program had a rocky start as government websites struggled to cope with heavy online traffic.

"What I'm hearing from my constituents at home is if this is the only way to stop the runaway train called the federal government, then we're willing to try it," said Texas Senator John Cornyn, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed 24 percent of Americans would blame Republicans, while 19 percent would blame Obama or Democrats. Another 46 percent said everyone would be to blame.

The shutdown battles of the 1990s didn't substantially affect public's opinion of then-Democratic President Bill Clinton or his Republican adversaries, the Gallup polling organization said.

Republicans and Democrats traded blame for the shutdown, but many seemed deeply embarrassed for the institution as a whole.

Several said they planned to donate their salaries to charity or forego pay altogether.

"This is a black eye on our government at all levels," said Republican Representative Michael Grimm of New York. "I think it's a low point for us." — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

White House formally notifies Congress of Japan free-trade talks

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's administration on Wednesday notified Congress it will start free-trade talks with Japan, after more than a year of consultations with Tokyo over joining U.S.-led negotiations on a regional free-trade pact.

"The participation of Japan, a major U.S. trading partner as well as close ally, further increases the economic significance of a TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) Agreement," acting U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis said in a letter to congressional leaders.

The 90-day notification was expected after U.S. and Japanese negotiators reached a deal on April 12 on the terms of Japan's entry into the TPP talks, which are now in their fourth year.

The United States and the 10 other countries already involved in the TPP talks on Saturday formally approved Japan's entry into the negotiations at a meeting of regional trade ministers in Indonesia.

The White House sees the TPP pact as part of its economic re-balancing toward Asia. It also plans to launch free-trade talks with the 27-nation European Union in coming months.

Countries around the world are moving increasingly toward regional free-trade agreements in the absence of any progress toward a comprehensive world trade deal.

Detroit-based auto makers, particularly Ford Motor Co, have lobbied against Japan joining the TPP talks.

They say the agreement will open the door for more imports from Japan, without tearing down barriers that they say keep U.S. autos out of Japan's market. — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

Obama to launch immigration push in Nevada next week

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama plans to launch his second-term push for a U.S. immigration overhaul during a visit to Nevada next week and will make it a high priority to win congressional approval of a reform package this year, the White House said on Friday.



Obama, who met leaders of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, intends to use his trip to Las Vegas on Tuesday to "redouble our efforts to make comprehensive immigration reform a reality," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.



He said Obama's proposals would be based on a "blueprint" the president put forth in a 2011 policy speech he delivered near the U.S.-Mexico border. The administration never put much effort into turning that plan, which included a controversial path to "earned" citizenship, into legislation.



Immigration reform, largely sidelined by economic issues in Obama's first term, is part of an ambitious liberal agenda he laid out in his second inaugural address on Monday, which also includes gun control, gay rights and fighting climate change.



The chances of a bipartisan agreement to revamp the U.S. immigration system are looking brighter despite the strong political passions that surround the issue.



Obama wants a deal and so do many Republicans in Congress, after having seen Hispanics vote overwhelmingly for the president and his fellow Democrats in the Nov. 6 election.



Republicans have begun softening their stance after the party alienated many Latinos with hard-line rhetoric on immigration during the election campaign. Obama's unsuccessful Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, caused a stir by advocating "self-deportation" of illegal immigrants.



Republicans in Arizona and other states in recent years have pushed through tough laws cracking down on illegal immigrants.



Since the election, Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, and Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, have quietly undertaken a bipartisan effort to craft a bill.



"We are encouraged by efforts under way in Congress to move forward on this issue, to address it in a bipartisan way," Carney told reporters. "It is certainly a top legislative priority for the president."



Carney said Obama would use his event in Las Vegas to push the broad proposals he laid out in May 2011. Nevada has a fast-growing Hispanic population that helped Obama carry the state in the November election.



RENEWING OBAMA BLUEPRINT



Obama's earlier plan, which he unveiled in El Paso, Texas, called for creating a path for some of the 11 million illegal immigrants already in the United States to earn citizenship.



Some Republicans have argued that would amount to amnesty, but administration officials have denied that, saying it would include fines, payment of back taxes, a lengthy probationary period and other hurdles to obtain legal status.



Obama's previous proposals also called for strict border enforcement, tough penalties for businesses that hire illegal workers and creation of a guest-worker program to meet agricultural labor needs.



Last summer, Obama took executive action so that the federal government stopped seeking to deport certain illegal immigrants who arrived in the United States as children - a dramatic change that was celebrated in the Hispanic community and seen as key to his re-election hopes that November.



After winning the bitterly fought election, he promised to tackle the issue comprehensively early in his new term.



Obama told Hispanic lawmakers on Friday, "There is no excuse for stalling or delay" on immigration legislation and promised to "move this debate forward at the earliest possible opportunity," according to a White House statement.



"The president will be traveling to Nevada on Tuesday to redouble the administration's efforts to work with Congress to fix the broken immigration system this year," the White House said. Obama has also promised specifics on immigration in his State of the Union address to Congress on February 12.



Representative Xavier Becerra of California, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said afterward: "Immigration reform is not a matter of 'if' but 'when.' Now is the time and this is our moment."



Senator Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who has been part of Senate talks on immigration reforms, said Obama's leadership on the issue was essential.



"I applaud him for announcing his commitment at the very beginning of this term and hope that the bipartisan process that is ongoing in the Senate will lead us to passage of a bill he can sign," he said.



Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican often mentioned as a future presidential contender, has also begun drawing up his own set of proposals he hopes can appeal to conservatives. The White House has voiced interest in hearing more about his ideas.



Some political analysts have said Republicans must seize the chance to help achieve immigration reform or else forfeit the chance of gaining significant Latino electoral support for a generation or more.   — Reuters

 

source: gmanetwork.com